The Life Flick

The Life Flick

I received the following reply within a week of sending my letter to Theophilus in which I described being transported to what appeared to be the center of a diamond where I was shown that Truth is best perceived from within God rather than looking upon Him. Unity expresses reality as does nothing else.

My dear sister-in-Christ and fellow aspiring immortal,

It was so good to hear from you after all this time. My wife had just inquired about you the day before your letter arrived!  

I believe that now that you have had this most interesting experience you understand why it is so wrong to criticize and condemn others. It is not just that criticizing others arbitrarily displeases God; it is because such opinions can only reflect a false understanding of the subject. It is one dimensional. Truth matters; to know something fully and to be known fully are impossible from the human perspective. We must always defer with full awareness of our ignorance to the One who sees from within. The Creator of reality is vigorously protective of it!

I can’t say that I have ever been transported to the inside of the Spirit of God as you were, you lucky creature! Your adventures simply amaze me. I wish I could offer you a similar tale but the only adventures I seem to have are found in the pages of the books I read and in the films I see. Filmmakers are certainly showing a lot of creativity these days. It seems to me that they are making it easier for a person to imagine that this life is a film which too will be over after a series of thrills, and dangers, love scenes and near death experiences, and then another reality will replace this one, just as another film instantly sends us to another world.

Yes, I think filmmakers are readying humankind for the transition to new earth. I only grieve because their plots are so shallow and Godless. The real story is so much more fascinating than tales of dreams inside dreams, or iron men that save the world by transforming themselves into jets and weapons, and what was that story in Avatar? I don’t even remember it now. Yes, the truth of Christ’s return and the creation of the new planet earth are just as thrilling but with depth and substance. 

Sometimes I think about how much easier it will be for us than for our early ancestors to find ourselves in that new world of light, of perfect government without divisiveness, and even of new geography because of books and films. Yes God is certainly preparing mankind for the Great Transformation. Sometimes I wish that I could read that book of it or see that film. We have snippets in the book of Revelation and the Gospels but I want more!

I must go off to feed the sheep now, I hear them calling. Please write to me again soon. Zelda sends her love.

Your true blue friend,

Theophilus

Repent for 2012 is Near

On New Year’s Eve our neighbors came over and we watched the movie 2012 about geological upheaval that destroyed most of the earth. 2012, the book, is a favorite of a friend of mine who is impressed by the science behind it and is convinced that global destruction described in the book will indeed occur in 2012. He says we must prepare. Admittedly, it is a little eerie that in the book the US president in 2012 is black, a fact that could hardly have been foreseen when the book was written.

It was odd to usher in a new year filled with potential and hope for all things good while being involved through spectatorship of such destruction of lives, and of the earth. Hope and evil make strange bedfellows. I could go along with the movie to the point of accepting the possibility that the world could come to an end as soon as 12-21-12, after all Jesus warned us to be ever-vigilant for His return during a celestial cataclysm. 

Still filled with dread from the movie, the next morning I went straight to the Bible for solace. Instead of reading snippets or a chapter, as I often do, I turned to Mark and noticed how short it is. So I read aloud the Gospel of Mark, the first gospel written and a source for Matthew and Luke.  This reading took only about two hours. It was a rich holy two hours. By reading aloud instead of to myself I was able to concentrate better. Three times when my mind wandered I reeled it back in by starting the chapter again. This punishment to my vocal cords helped keep me alert to what I was reading. Also, to read the book without stopping helped me to see the progression of it which surprised me many times. That doesn’t happen when I just read one chapter at a time. I want to read Mark aloud several more times to fully grasp all those fleeting thoughts that I had to pass over on New Year’s Day. 

The soufflé my soul concocted on January 1st with the ingredients of the gospel of Mark  folded into catastrophe of 2012  was nutritiously wise leading me to decide that the best way to begin this secular year is to repent because the Kingdom of God is surely at hand and this planet is probably doomed.  

The Greek word for repent is metanoia. The easy translation is to change the mind and heart. People seem to love the concept of change, but change is not always good. We need to be more specific if we’re going to venture away from our mental comfort zones. Metanoia can be translated as ‘to go beyond (after) the intellect (nous)’ to the place of sweet surrender to God’s will…which reigns supreme in His Kingdom.  Repent for the safe and secure Kingdom of God’s rule is here.

Over and over again in the Gospel of Mark, the reader is shown how different God’s ways are from man’s ways, His perspective from ours, and from most of the Pharisees and scribes.  Let’s reach beyond ourselves to find and obey the One in whose Kingdom we seek to dwell...where there will be no earthquakes to fear.

Together let’s approach 2011 as if 2012 will actually be the last year of life on earth as we know it. Just in case it is.  

Lying Eyes

It was the kind of gray morning when you knew that the sun would soon burn through the fog and brighten the land with its hot lumens. The trees saturated with recent rains shot out millions, no billions of leaves in a myriad of shapes and sizes. Isabella could not count all the leaves she saw, but she often wondered how many they were, and if God knew the answer. Scurrying from hiding place to hiding place ran busy little chipmunks and squirrels while butterflies and bees moved from honeysuckle to lily to take their daily bread. Flies, fleas and mosquitoes buzzed through the air looking for humans to annoy; cardinals, robins, and starlings in and out of trees foraged food for babes in nests. The air already felt steamy, round and thick with heat and humidity, reminding her that before civilization came, the place had been a swamp, meant to delight mosquitoes and lizards, not human beings. Isabella wondered what invisible elements made the air so heavy and oppressive one day and so light the next. Flowers  fixed in earth, stood all around in all the stages of their short lives; clusters of buds peeking their color, pastel yellows and pinks, deep bloody reds; lonely royal purple irises looking tall and regal. A deer here, a person there, buildings, and a river all filled the landscape with a visible display of the evidence of life and the illusion that space is a void.

Space, a highway of the supernatural rich with particles of electrons transmitting language, images, and sounds invisibly through the air and through walls. Air, busier than land with sounds of planes barging through clouds, loud chirping birds sending messages to others far away, engines powering metal to move passengers and baggage, jam packed with invisible electricity and full of spirits.

Spirits good and evil, real, anonymous, shrewd, protective, busy in battle, winning some, losing others for King or devil. Persuasive companions of human intelligence, relaying messages between friends, transmitting thought prayers up the line from angels to God’s ears, embodied spirits, bodiless spirits, using the power of invisibility to heal and to destroy. Spirits cannot be bought or sold, their value beyond material gold. Spirits penetrate flesh as electrons through metal walls to haunt and to heal. Holy spirits, Holy Spirit of the Church-Militant wages war on evil spirits to deliver gods home. Which thoughts are your own Isabella? And which are the evidence of spirit wars. Whose side are you on today lady soldier?

The Spirit of Money

I think I hear God laughing at us from time to time, the way we regard money and how humans spend more time in their quest for cash than in their quest for immortality. I think He is laughing at us for the same reason we quietly laugh at children when they don’t realize we are teasing them.

After all these years and all these millions of thoughts I’ve come to the conclusion that money is spirit that takes possession of paper and metals for its form, and sometimes it takes possession of men’s souls and twists them all up until an optical illusion is formed in them and they barely perceive reality and the purpose of life.

I wonder if God uses money as a thermometer to take the temperature of the souls of His aspiring immortal children. Does a lot of money read ‘K’ as trusting and aiming for His new earth; does a little money, maybe not even enough for food and shelter make any difference at all in how much ‘F’ trusts Him? Does desperation force ‘P’ to be more honest for Christ’s sake, or dishonest to save him or herself?

What terrifies me is the story about the talents and how the big winner was the shrewd one who parlayed his ten into ten more. I’m not sure I can do that, though God knows I try. I only hope that when the Master returns I don’t have even less than I was given.

When Jesus said to let people steal from you, and if they beg, give it to them. He knew that our Father would make up for the loss; He always does.    

One of my very favorite passages about the spirit of money is the one that rich King David wrote, now known as Psalm 62:

“Surely men of low degree are a vapor,
         Men of high degree are a lie;
         If they are weighed on the scales,
         They are altogether lighter than vapor.
 Do not trust in oppression,
         Nor vainly hope in robbery;
         If riches increase,
         Do not set your heart on them.                                                                                                          God has spoken once,
         Twice I have heard this:
         That power belongs to God.
Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
         For You render to each one according to his work.”

When Jesus said to store our treasures in heaven instead of on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal, He was guiding us. That’s why I am sure there will be money in heaven. Money, the earning of it and the usefulness of it makes all kinds of other things happen, many very good things. Let’s be friends with the spirit of money but suspicious of it too. As John said, “Test the spirits!”

Dear aspiring immortal friend, if money is causing you to be unhappy these days, smile for the camera, God is probably poking you with His thermometer.

Rise and Shine

Today is the first Sunday after Easter, but in the land with no time from where we showed up on earth again with Jesus Christ,  as new superhuman creations, this is actually that same day! It's feels so good not to always be encumbered by time and the world, even though we get to visit it! To celebrate, today I want to share with you again, my favorite passage from one of my favorite immortals.

Guest Blogger- Saint John Chrysostom

"Christ left us on earth in order that we should become like beacons of light and teachers unto others;

that we might act like leaven,

move among men like angels,

be like men unto children,

and like spiritual men unto animal men, in order to win them over,

and that we may be like seed, and bear abundant fruit.

There would be no need for words, if we bore witness with our deeds,

there would be no pagans, if we were true Christians."

Wow! that was so beautiful! Thanks John!

Hope all my aspiring immortals friends have a wonderful week.

Gee See Us in Christ

I suppose more than anything else in the world I want to know what it feels like to be in Christ. In his 14^th century book, The Life in Christ, Nicholas Cabasilas wrote well developed and Biblically supported explanations of Life in Christ. For example, he started by explaining that when we arrive at Kingdom Come, we will need certain senses that must be formed here and now. Who wants to get there and be deaf and blind? He said that this world of fluid darkness is the womb state for aspiring immortals. I know he is right, and he put it so well. Then he went on to say that union with Christ is described in many different ways in the Bible because each way by itself is inadequate to describe being in Christ. For example being in Christ is more than being in a home, more than being married, more than the relationship of vine to a branch. Life in Christ is like all of these and more so. It’s a mystery. No wonder I don’t know what it feels like.

When Nicholas goes on to explain how baptism and communion make this unity possible I know how that’s true, and when he quotes Paul over and over again, such as when he says’ “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28) to support the reality of life in Christ and Christ’s life in us, his words are as reliable the sun. And yet I don’t have to try so hard to feel my family genes in me, and me in my neighborhood or me in my country. I can think what it means to be in Christ but I can’t feel it.

Christ really threw us a curve ball when He came back from his trip to Hades and took the form of a different person. His disciples spoke to him for a while before they even realized that it was Jesus they were speaking to because he looked like someone else. Why did He do that? Was it a trick?

Actually you and I probably know Jesus better than we know anyone else, even our closest relatives because His personality is described so specifically and so consistently in the Bible. Maybe Jesus in me is all that is good, all that is compassionate, all that loves to commune with God the Father.  Maybe I can feel Jesus in me loud and clear, even though I don’t recognize Him when I am producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, longsuffering, mildness, fidelity, modesty, continence, and chastity. Next time I see a fruit blossom and grow from me, I’ll say hello to Jesus. Maybe He’ll smile and say hello back. 

I wonder which fruit I will need to make when I am in Him on the Cross. 

Me and God

I love Him but I can’t see Him. I know He is there because He proves it to me when He plays with time right in front of my eyes. Last week I thought I should try again to look for an agent for my book, The Immortal Life, and the very next day Beth told me that she spoke to her old friend from Bedford after thirty five years and it turns out that Sally is an agent and is willing to see my book. How did He do that?

A week later I went to my new book club to talk about Frankenstein with the Catholic ladies. When I arrived, there was only the leader there and no one else. She mentioned that there was a Mass going on in the chapel so I said, “Let’s go!” There was a small company of about five people in the Mass. It was being said for their new project. When we walked in the lay reader was reading the Book of Samuel, and was at the point when young Samuel was trying to sleep. He kept hearing his master call him. Several times Samuel got up and went to find out what he wanted only to hear the master say that he did not call him. Finally the master realized that God was calling young Samuel and had something to say so he told the boy that the next time he heard the call he should reply “Here I am Lord.” Everyone in the small congregation silently said, “Here I am Lord.” And then we said it together out loud a few times in the responsive prayer. After Mass my new friend and I went back into the sitting room to talk about Frankenstein. A couple of men joined us because we offered wine and camaraderie. When the small company emerged from the chapel I asked them what their project was, and the one man replied that they were going to syndicate content to Christians. I asked if they needed content and gave them my card. Once again my invisible but powerful Lord was encouraging me.

It doesn’t matter if nothing comes of these two incidents; God was showing me for the millionth time that He can orchestrate my life (and yours) any way He wants. I like that. I don’t have to try too hard or be too ambitious. I only have to try hard to listen and write what He wants me to write. As I’ve said, ‘I am the visible ghost-writer of the invisible author.’ That alone is not an easy job. Someone else has to do the marketing of all this writing. I’m glad to be reminded that it is the Author who markets for me.

I suppose that it isn’t really the Father God Himself who is orchestrating all these marvels, but it is His angel that He has assigned to me.  I hope that my angel is very good and perfectly serves our Lord. I would hate to have a flawed or tricky angel.

Every time, well almost every time, God plays with time to show me He is near I get so excited about it that I write it down in my hard copy Journal. I feel so sorry for the people who don’t believe that the invisible God is Someone to love and obey and that one day will become very visible and that forever and ever and ever in a sunny place.

I trust Him with my life because He can play with time and I wonder over and over again how He does that because I can’t, at least not yet.

Star Power

Johnnie was walking to school when the earth jolted under his feet. Books fell from the hands he used to catch his fall when his legs crumbled beneath him. The angry earth, suddenly awake from a long and deep sleep, rumbled violently. Johnnie was tossed from tree to rock while thunderous sounds of collapsing buildings pounded throughout his soul, deep into his very heart. Fear, fear of death, fear of pain, fear of change, fear of loss, fear of loneliness whacked every cubic inch of him. He lay on the ground for that season of calamity and stood up into a foreign world. 

Johnnie ran to his old home to find nothing more than a mound of rubble where picture covered walls once contained his beautiful brown eyed mommie and jovial papa, where sun poured through windows to wake him every morning. He knew his parents and his sister Sally who was exactly half his age this year were deep in the lifeless mound because they were home when he left for school. He could not see them though; all he could see was rubble. Johnnie was gazing at that mound of sorrow and sobbing when Sister Josefina took his hand to whisk him away to her convent.

The nun said he was lucky to have lived. He wondered how that could be true. If his mommie and papa and especially little Sally were with God, and he was in this rubble, hurting and thirsty and dirty and hungry how could he be the lucky one? He asked Sister Josefina who replied, “Suddenly the Judge shall come and the deeds of each shall be revealed but with fear we cry out in the middle of the night, ‘Holy, holy, holy art Thou oh God, have mercy on us.’ Then Sister Josefina went on to explain, “Johnnie, we the living are the lucky ones my child because we who have beheld this disaster with our own eyes, have seen with our souls how suddenly each person meets his Maker. We are reminded to prepare. Glorify God, my child who rains on the good and the evil alike, the rain that gives birth to seedlings in the spring, and who allows evil to test and to strengthen men’s souls. Today our eyes have beheld a grand gift of mercy. Johnnie, let’s you and I gather the stars out of this rubble.”

Meanwhile papa was not seeing God. When the ceiling collapsed on him and his beloved wife and Sally he was indeed knocked out but regained consciousness only to find himself in an air pocket. He could see his wife’s lifeless hand, that hand he kissed tenderly so often to show her how grateful he was for her labors. He reached for her beloved fingers and wept. Then papa remembered Johnnie and knew that he couldn’t succumb to death to be with her. “Oh, Lord,” he began “send your angels to rescue me that I may see my son grow into a God-fearing man, then I can rest in peace. As for my beloved wife and girl-child, receive them into your loving arms. Have mercy on them in your judgment for no man lives and sins not, only You are without sin my Lord and King.” Papa prayed like that as he tried to tunnel his way through to fresh air. When he couldn’t think he just recited psalms or repeated the name Jesus. 

Freda had flown in from Florida. She was trained for situations like this. Her instincts were more valuable to her work than her strength. She trained daily to keep her strength up and her spirit keen. Freda could sense the life-filled prayers of papa inside that calamitous mound when she walked by. “Come on, she called to whoever would listen, help me!” Then she started picking up pieces of wall and furniture. “Mighty God who hears the suffering of these people, rescue the quake victims and even the community of saviors, from true death which is drifting away from You, the creator and giver of Life. Reveal yourself in miracles to the doubting; reveal your love to the angry. Touch the bitter with the sweet wood of resurrection. Lord, use this darkness to make your light apparent.” Praying like that while she worked was Freda’s secret to success.

And when she stopped praying to lift a particularly heavy piece, or just because she wanted to listen, Freda could hear a choir of angels and watchful souls chanting together, “Holy, Holy, Holy is our God, and Halleluiah.” Freda was joy filled in her labor for she knew that the time for renewal had come to Haiti.



Why I Write this Blog – A New Year Mission Statement

The Journal of an Aspiring Immortal is written to inspire and encourage committed Christians, or those whom I call Aspiring Immortals. It is written to remind us in fanciful ways that this fast and furious life offers our immortal souls the opportunity to become Sons and Daughters of the most high God.

Let us be vigilant to keep in mind that Christianity is more about entering the next life where we will live forever than it is about ensuring our comfort in this fleeting phase of life. It is to become a sheep rather than a goat, to keep oil in our lamps, to avoid being one of those who throughout their lives said, Lord, Lord” and yet He never knew them. It is to be able to hear the voice of Christ so we can recognize it when He calls us to Him on the last day. It is to become brave enough, by practice, to flee the flames and fly up to meet Him in the air.

In light of the real eternal life of our destination so much that would cause our demise is unimportant. 

Whether we are rich or poor doesn’t matter because we can’t buy God’s favor. We can’t buy character.

Hatred, lies, thievery or other painful darts aimed as us from our neighbors, relatives or on a political level from other countries and from terrorists do not matter because we are ultimately only responsible for our own attitudes not theirs. Let us protect ourselves, but never hate the enemy. Hatred is wasteful. Fear is also wasteful.  Since neither my love nor my pity can elevate the enemy, certainly my resentment or judgment won’t heal the enemy or myself.

To live the immortal life here on this planet and now is to pick up magical binoculars that focus on what is important, and blind us to what is not important.

My mission is to serve as those magical binoculars for my fellow Aspiring Immortals, with God’s guidance and help. I wonder if Christ will return in 2010?

Me and My Machines

So many people that I love have disappeared lately. I never say a person died because death is being away from God, and life is being near God. I want to believe that the people who have left their bodies are near God, so I just say they disappeared. When I stop to think about where they are without their bodies and all, I wonder how they will survive without machines.

There was a time when aspiring immortals had hardly any machines at all. They were like birds flying through the skies, landing on branches and then plunging into berry-filled bushes. Nowadays we operate all sorts of contraptions using them to connect ourselves to each other and to learn what others think we should know. This morning I was listening to the radio and heard the same info about ten times in fifteen minutes. Maybe I was supposed to turn it off after I heard it once. I kept thinking they would tell me something new. Silly me. Of course the most fun machine is my beloved computer because like the genius-telephone it is a two-way street.

I know the people that I love, who have disappeared are still alive. But I wonder what life is like without any machines at all. And that makes me stop to think that my body is a machine too.

When I separate my true self from my body self, like I will be someday and for a very long time, then I feel very light, like an angel. I am free to do the most important thing, to love God in a pure straightforward way. It doesn’t matter what I look like or what kind of clothes I’m wearing or if I have real gold dangling from my ears. This is fun! Sure I can’t hug anymore, and I’ll bet that’s what I will miss most about not having a body, but I can still sing from my heart. My heart, not the bloody one but the real one is invisible with me, just like my thoughts are. And I can talk to people without sound and they’ll know it’s me, just like I can hear my Boss talk to me now.

Flying through time is much easier without a body too.

Since my body is so much like having a machine, if I try hard enough I can be the boss of my body like I am the boss of my computer or my cell phone or my car. I will only feed it what it should have and I will make sure it’s always clean and lubricated and I will exercise it regularly to keep the oxygen flowing right inside and to keep the muscles strong so they can hold up the organs. Yes, I will be a good machine owner, especially during Lent when I will go into the desert with Jesus. Less food, more water, more quietful listening, more rest. It was wonderful that Jesus healed so many people, but I’ll bet that He preferred that they would take better care of their bodies so they wouldn’t get sick in the first place.

During Lent, maybe I’ll even try to live more like the Holy Spirit Who has no body, unless you count that dove but that was temporary, than Jesus on the Cross. That is to say that I want to see how much I can be a pure person and not an amalgam of person and machine. It could be fun to walk through the day, being aware of the difference between the forever me and the body me. Maybe I'll even try to cut down on the other machines in my life as well. During Lent, I hope I can become closer to Our Father Who Art in Heaven without any machines.

Meet Eveready Michael

Sunday morning I received an assignment. Tell the world the story about an aspiring immortal named Michael.

I didn’t really mean to scare anyone last week when I mentioned the end of the world and how all true aspiring immortals must be prepared for it. The closer you are to immortality (on the spectrum from the mortality of a puppy to the immortality of a person who looks, thinks, and acts like God) the less you need to make a separate effort to pack your bags for the day when earth must be evacuated. To show you what I mean, here is the true story of an aspiring immortal who is always ready.

During World War II, German soldiers upon the command of Hitler occupied Greece. They took over the government and held cities, towns, and villages of people hostel. Everything the people owned, what they could do, even say was controlled by the Germans. From today’s western perspective it seems impossible for one people to dominate another so quickly and so thoroughly but the fact is that most people are anxious to take the path of least resistance so when an army of strong men comes to town with guns and whips, it seems practical to do whatever they tell you. Aggressors like that kind of attitude. It helps them get their way.

In Corinth, Greece, there was a holy man named Michael who was the spiritual shepherd of the people. One day a brave rebellious Corinthian who had had enough domination by the German soldiers killed one. Since the Germans didn’t waste much time with the court system they rounded up about 125 Greek men from the age of 13 to execute for the impudence of the one that truly committed the crime. Killing innocent people was the most effective way to illicit a false sense of loyalty from their subjects. German soldiers killed innocent Greeks by the droves.

As this was about to happen to the 125 or so men in Corinth one man jumped on his motorcycle to the village where shepherd Michael was and told him of the imminent mass execution. Michael immediately hopped on the back of the cycle and the two sped to the scene. When they arrived, Michael jumped off the bike and ran over to the swath of land between the firing squad and the accused men.

Michael mightily struck the ground with his golden staff and in perfect German he commanded the armed executioners to kill him first, before touching one of his innocent sheep.

Silence followed. Even the birds were afraid to chirp. It was as if God, in the form of Michael, dared the men to kill the innocent. The executioners didn’t know what to do. It would have been easy to pull their triggers, but for the power that the holy man exuded who was ready to die for his sheep.

The executioners walked away. Then the innocent men walked away, and then Michael walked away.

If the end of the world had happened at that moment in time, Michael may have been among the first to arrive safely on the new earth. Michael didn’t have to think about what to do, he simply yielded himself who was already enough like God to his heart’s Holy Roommate who took over and guided Michael at that critical time. When the world comes to an end, aspiring immortals need only do the same. Yield your courageous self to the Spirit of God. Don’t hesitate, don’t look back.

Practice by performing small acts of courage. This can be as easy as telling the uncomfortable truth or standing up for and with someone else who is trying to take the narrow road. Courage simply takes willingness to be different because God is different than mortals. In fact, holiness simply means to be different… in a Godly way. Most people are cowards, accept that. They need love too. With enough love and good example maybe they will become brave. Bravery, even small acts of courage, shows God that we have our priorities in the same order that He does: love, truth, justice etcetera.

Michael left his body back on earth in 1958 after he was given more and more important jobs to do for God like becoming the second Archbishop of North and South America. Like all of us aspiring immortals, Michael is still waiting for his new body and for the new earth. But you can be sure that when it is gathering time Michael will still be ready. Are you? Practice bravery and see for yourself.

A Visit to the Birth Canal

Okay grab my hand real tight, I want to show you something. I want to a show you the entrance to the land of immortality because I don’t think you believe me when I tell you how small it is. I keep talking about getting small enough to get through it and meanwhile most people have this idea that just about everyone they know will fit. Don’t get me wrong, I want everyone to get in who is even remotely a good person, even most of the time a good person no matter what they believe about God. It’s just that one day while I was flying around I saw that door and it was almost tiny! I just don’t see how everyone can fit, especially if they are in a hurry to escape a disaster.

Let’s face it; the thing about truth is that you just can’t change it. A good way to imagine truth is to think of it as matter, something with substance. See this computer screen in front of you. It is true. If Harvey came over to me and said he thought it was round, I’d have to tell him that he was wrong. The truth is that it’s square. I don’t want to start a fight, and if he wants to believe it is round and if Harvey tells everyone he knows to believe it is round, well then he can do that. And all the nice people in the world can either join Harvey in his insistence on a round monitor or let him go ahead and be wrong. The hardest people to convince that Harvey is wrong about the round computer screen are the people with their eyes shut. They are sitting in their own darkness, imagining their own versions of a computer screen, or convincing themselves that computer screens don’t exist at all, and some of them get really mad at you if you ask them to open their eyes and see the square screen. Truth just sits there minding its own business; it doesn’t care if you believe it or not. It can’t change to suit everyone on the planet; in fact it can’t even change to help just two people who disagree to both be right.

If something is invisible you can still know it’s true by what it does. For instance, you know that cyberspace is true because we have email. You know that electricity is true because we have light bulbs and air conditioning. If you tried to tell someone about cyberspace and electricity who never experienced their effects they would think you're wacko. You know that immortality is true because Jesus is still alive. That's true because if you ask Him to prove it and really mean it, He will. But don’t think that anyone else will believe you because He is proving it to you and not to anyone else at that moment. One day about hundred years or so ago I was sitting by a swimming pool at my friend’s house sunning my happy little self when my friend forced me to ask Jesus Christ to prove to me that He was still alive. To make her stop bugging me I did what she wanted and geezoflip…He replied! I wish He had flashed the information up in the sky in brighter-than-the-sun neon lights so everyone else could see, but He didn’t He whispered it loud enough only for me to hear. The problem with that is that on days like yesterday when I tell some people that He is alive their faces glaze over like they want to go to sleep.

I read that Jesus, the only true immortal I know, said to me and to the other aspiring immortals that the road to life is narrow and difficult to travel and few find it. “Strive to enter,” He said, “many will try and won’t be able to.” (Matt 7:14 and Luke 13:24).

Of the xillions of people from day one to now, very few are immortals because you have to

1. take away the zillions of good people who either think that immortality is fantasy or don’t think about it at all. (Why bother to surprise them?)
2. take away the millions of other people who think Jesus is a liar because He said it would be hard to get through and few will make it, (Don’t you hate people who don’t take you seriously?) and
3. if you believe that Jesus has inside information, you even have to take away a bunch of people who are trying to get in and won’t make it.

That’s the scary part! And that’s why we aspiring immortals have to help each other by becoming like athletes who train for the Olympics to go down that hard road that I call the birth canal to the land of immortality. The new planet earth will not be overpopulated. On the other side of that narrow entrance will be the few people who went beyond nice to love those who were mean to them, who trusted God no matter what bad things were happening, who let thieves steal from them, and who don’t mind being nailed to a cross. Well, that eliminates a few …zillion people. At least on the other side you won’t have to stand in long lines for an ice cream cone!

It doesn’t matter that there are few people aware of or willing to go down that difficult road and through that narrow gate, what matters is that the aspiring immortal makes it. That’s what I’m here to tell you. One of the most important things an aspiring immortal must learn is never to look to the left or right to see if anyone else is coming along, only focus with all your might on getting through yourself. You’ll have plenty of time for company on the other side. Okay. Let's go!

Back to the Future

All of my blogged inspirational suggestions like:

§ realize that the invisible God has shown us, through our own technology, that we can make the short leap from cyberspace to heaven to find Him

§ realize that we have missions, and that a good life is one that is used to please God

§ consider that you too may have a virgin birth, thus you can identify with Jesus Christ a little more to live as a real true child of God, and

§ realize that Christmas should be celebrated because Jesus showed us how to trust God better than Adam did

…are all designed to transport you first mentally, then spiritually, and ultimately physically to the new world as described in the Bible’s last chapter.

In this election year most thinking-people spend time contemplating what can be done to make American–life comfortable for more people. We want what’s good. We don’t want evil. We appreciate the freedom to choose. God endorses freedom. That’s why He allows us to come and go and do whatever we want as if He doesn’t even exist. He doesn’t want to coerce anyone. He favors religions that don’t coerce too. Freedom is a wonderful thing, even though it allows evil. We want to pick a president who can make a good world out of a free world.

This world is heavily flawed because of all the evil in it. To help our president make a good world, we need to use our freedom to choose to defy evil, the evil that whispers in our ears, lurks in our hearts, and impels us to lie, hate and otherwise miss the mark of God-likeness. The world that we want our next president to make is a world that each of us needs to help form by being generous, compassionate, honest, hard working and forgiving. Anyone can govern a country full of good people. No one can govern a country full of radical, self centered people who intentionally deceive each other.

God knows that the person who can make this world a better place, if only for their families and co-workers, clubs, teams, associations and congregations will be just the kind of person He will select for the real permanent world. He will make these people physically immortal.

Some say that being good isn’t good enough. Jesus said that no one is really good but God. That’s why the one goal has to be Godliness. Being good is good enough if you are good like God. Only Jesus was that good, even though He refused to admit it. We can try.

Working at becoming like God, or even like you think a God should be if you would allow yourself for a moment to invent One, is a win-win pursuit. Win here on old earth - win there on new earth.

My message is to ask you to first take the time to learn about who God is, and what He wants from you, that’s mental, then let it sink into your heart to change you in wonderful ways, that’s spiritual, then become an immortal, that’s physical. It starts with learning so read the Bible, read the theologians and read my book, The Immortal Life. Learning is the first step towards the immortal world.

Believe

In the olden days, many people considered themselves prudent and scientific by believing only in what they could see or touch. If something could be purchased with money, it was valuable. Matter sat on its throne and commanded kings and constables to profer practicality, and most people felt secure. Then Thomas Edison said, "Let there be light." And the practical people flipped switches from New York to New Delhi and saw the light and read at night and refused to spend too much time wondering how it worked because in their hearts they knew that it came from matter. A wire brought light to them, and they were glad. Another burp of surprise, then contentment, followed when Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone rang. Among the crowd, however, were those who worshipped an invisible God whom they claimed created everything that was visible and invisible. To them the invisible mattered. Churches and mosques, synagogues and temples were constructed upon designs of clever architects where believers could contemplate God and His invisible realm and where they would be separated for a time from the practical people whose took comfort in matter. The lovers of the invisible sang, and the practical ones ignored them. And the great and powerful Creator of the visible and invisible, gazed upon Earth to watch waves of believers ebb and flow through the centuries. Scientists and engineers moved fast through time until they confounded matter. Increasingly, the air filled with invisible activity. Wires reluctantly stepped down off the throne, and space shared the place where matter once reigned alone. The buildings for believers grew hollow, because the voice once loud in the hearts of their grandfathers and grandmothers was harder to hear and impossible to hear over the buzz of the busy air. They stopped bothering to pray and to sing. Believers became practical, and the practical started to believe in the invisible as technology usurped the place where God once reigned in His world of air. And that was how He introduced Himself to the practical ones. The invisible God of the invisible showed the contented people of matter how little they once knew about the power of air. Without cell phone or VoIP, He broadcast His wireless message of love-with-no-bribery and light-without-sun, and life-without-end. And He waited for them to believe.